


The Rascal Chronicles

by flyingfanatic



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:52:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6108580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingfanatic/pseuds/flyingfanatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clexa adopts a puppy. Pure plot-less fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks. If you're new here, I suggest you select "Entire Work" cause my updates are short.

They're walking side by side through the market in Polis when Clarke suddenly grabs Lexa's arm, making her tense and spin, looking for the attack. But there is no danger. Just Clarke grinnning from ear to ear as she squeaks, "Is that a PUPPY?!" 

Before Lexa can blink Clarke is bearing down on the unsuspecting dog owner. The terrified Trikru drives out of the way of Wanheda and leaves Clarke at a halt in front of the puppy, uncertain what to do next. 

Lexa walks up to her side, curious as to why Clarke came to such an abrupt stop. 

Clarke's hands flutter irritatedly by her side and she huffs, "But I don't know what to doooo." 

As she realises, the corner of Lexa's mouth twitches up in amusement. Clarke has never met a dog before. So Lexa sinks down in the centre of Polis and shows Clarke how to offer her hand out for the puppy to sniff. It's a struggle to keep a blank face watching the skaiprisa be so joyful.

The puppy has no hesitation about waddling straight up to Clarke's outstretched hand, checking her over with a quick sniff before attempting to eat her finger. Clarke laughs quietly and passes her hand back and forth for the puppy's amusement while its owner looks on, uncertain what sinister purpose the great Wanheda has in store. 

Lexa glances at him then turns to Clarke to ask, "Would you like to keep him?"

"Can I?" 

Lexa has not seen hope that pure in Clarke's eyes in the whole time she's been on the ground. She nods, and when Clarke turns back to pick up the puppy Lexa gestures to one of her guards to pay the previous owner the dog's value. The puppy squirms in Clarke's arms and she realises that she has no idea how to take care of a dog. Lexa gently corrects her grip. Then, as they walk back to the tower, she promises to teach Clarke how to train her newest responsibility.

//

It’s not until the next day, after the puppy has got in to her war paint and left teeth marks in her favourite shoulder armour that Lexa begins to think maybe this was not the best idea she had ever had. She’s looking over the ruins of a perfectly good throw when she hears an ominous crash behind her.

“Lexa, he’s eating your candles. Are they gonna poison him?”


	2. Chapter 2

After a panicked hour in which Clarke insisted on calling five different healers to reassure her that small amounts of beeswax were not in fact harmful to dogs, Lexa is finally released to pack away the box of candles scattered all over one corner over her room.

On the other side of the room Clarke is watching the exhausted puppy sleep, sprawled out in the center of the couch. Lexa considers telling Clarke that animals are not kept inside, and that dogs should be in outside pens like the horses, but thinks better of it when she sees Clarke’s face. Instead Lexa quietly moves to a nearby chair to simply enjoy the peace reflected back to her out of Clarke’s eyes.

“I had no idea people could feel like this about something not human. He’s just, so…” Clarke’s whispered voice fades away.

“You had no animals on the ark?”

“No. I guess nobody thought of bringing animals up on to a space station before the bombs – what was the point when there were so many down on Earth?” Clarke plays absently with one of the puppy’s ears while he sleeps. “Anyway, resources would have been to scarce on the Ark. Animals take up oxygen, space, food. But I used to love to read about them, look at the pictures and try to draw them. My favourite one was of dogs herding sheep on a farm, a whole series of them and the way they moved, you could see something in their eyes… There was just one little dog and maybe a hundred sheep but that dog was in control.”

“Clarke, what is a ‘sheep’?”

Clarke turns to her with an amused frown. “You don’t know what a sheep is?”

“No. Describe it to me. We may call it something different.”

“Well I spent more time looking at the dogs to be honest. The sheep had four legs and were a little bigger than the dogs, but they ate grass and had a thick coat the people used to take off them every year to turn in to wool.”

“They skinned these animals every year? And they did not die?” 

Lexa shifts uncomfortably. The thought of animals with such strange constitutions worried her. If these sheep could survive having their skin removed, they must be even stronger than the pauna. Resistant to normal forms of harm, sheep could become powerful weapons for the first to find their descendants. If Azgeda somehow harnessed the sheep, their thick furs would keep them warmer in the cold north, allowing them to focus on attacks to the south. Possibly riding their demon sheep.

Clarke is smiling at the interplay of confusion in Lexa’s eyes when she replies, “No it wasn’t like skinning, not the same as what your hunters do. I think they just took the fur off, more like shaving.”

Sitting stiffly in her chair now, it is clear Lexa isn’t quite convinced by Clarke’s explanation. She must see that her hunters train their dogs in the way Clarke described, or her army could be caught unprepared.

Still, her people can wait until tomorrow if it lets Clarke have this small moment.

“So what are you going to call him?”

“I don’t know yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay folks, name that puppy. I did not create Fish so that one is out, unfortunately.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I know Candle and Rexa were more popular but Rascal just... fit? I'll work Candle and Rexa in later (Lexa and Clarke's horses, respectively?)

"He seems to like candles, maybe that's a good name."

Lexa scowls, "That is not amusing. One day he will eat something that will make him sick. You should teach him manners before it is too late. Regardless, I think a more suitable name would be Rascal."

Lexa takes Clarke out in to the yard to start Rascal's training in the hope that it will cause the minimum amount of mess, and also to avoid Titus' serious looks and comments about wasting time. She's brought a few strips of dried pauna meat and waves it slowly in front of Rascal's nose, showing Clarke how to make him follow the smell and how to turn her hand so he can snatch the treat without his small sharp teeth catching her fingers. Clarke catches on quickly and Rascal is eager to sit, plop to the ground and roll on his belly in a ridiculous display all for another piece of pauna meat.

Lexa backs off to lean against a nearby fence. In no time at all there are smeared mud marks on Clarke’s trousers where Rascal has leapt up after a treat he hasn’t earned, and after the meat has run out Clarke simply sits in the middle of the pen and wrestles the puppy in her lap. So much for a clean training session, Lexa smirks to herself.

After shipping Clarke off in the direction of a bath, Lexa is left alone with Rascal in her room. Lexa goes to settle on the couch with her book, but has barely finished the first sentence before invasive paws are banging against her arms, their owner squeaking pitifully. 

"What?" Lexa snaps. "First you invite yourself in to my room, then you eat my favourite candles, and now... what do you want?" 

Rascal headbutts her hand, looks at the door and whines again.

“Clarke is taking a bath; you cannot go and join her. You must learn that you can be separated from Clarke without it causing you distress, because you cannot be with her always.”

Rascal waddles away from her and starts to scratch at the door. If his whining gets much worse, her guards are going to think that she is torturing him. So she opens the door and follows his waving tail down the corridor.

Rascal confidently pads his oversized paws down past the guards, in no way intimidated by the towering spears and boots on either side. He simply bumps his head against the door until Lexa opens it far enough for him to squish his fat little body in to the room. Tentatively Lexa ducks her head just inside the door.

“Clarke?” Rascal pads his way over to the chair near the bath, pulls the towel on it down and triumphantly trots off with it.

Lexa sighs and rolls her eyes. Of course he would decide to steal the most crucial item in the room. 

With one furtive glance at the back of Clarke’s head, oblivious in the tub, Lexa heads after Rascal. It should be a relatively simple task for a highly trained warrior to quietly retrieve a large towel from a small dog, but he turns sharply at the last moment and Lexa barrels in to a set of shelves instead. 

Alarmed, Clarke sits up and twists in the tub, surprised to see Heda crumpled against a wall. 

“Lexa? Are you okay?” 

Bracing one hand against the wall and the other on her knee, Lexa rises slowly and with as much of an air of dignity as she can manage. She brushes a tangled piece of wool off her shoulder and straightens up. Rascal has since abandoned the towel and made his way over to Clarke, who is dangling her fingers over the edge of the tub while continuing to give Lexa a confused and slightly amused look.

“I am fine. It was Rascal; he couldn’t bear to be parted from you. I will leave now.” 

Lexa strides across the room, sweeps up the towel, throws it over the chair and heads straight out of the room, head held high. Clarke manages to wait until the door has been shut before she starts to chuckle. 

“I think we’re stressing her out, don’t you?” 

Rascal chews on Clarke’s finger in agreement.


	4. Chapter 4

Lexa is in conference with the ambassadors of the plains clan when Clarke walks in, her puppy bounding erratically along behind her. With one ear on the conversation, Lexa turns and raises a questioning eyebrow at Clarke. If Rascal commits another of his ridiculous tricks it could completely derail this trade operation and she would be forced to banish the dog from the tower. Clarke merely smiles and leads Rascal over to one corner, producing a knotted rope to distract him with.

As Clarke and Rascal seem both occupied and out of the way, Lexa gradually shifts her attention back to the discussion on weapons trading and horse breeding. By the time the talk turns to the mare the envoys intend to gift to her, Lexa is completely focused.

So focused, in fact, that it is someone else who first notices Rascal crouched near the ambassador’s foot, peeing. 

“CLAARRKE!”

Rascal makes a terrified squeak and scrambles away from Lexa, who is practically trembling with rage. He is quickly scooped up by Clarke and rushed outside while a guard produces a cleaning rag for the ambassador. 

It is left to Titus to make apologies as Lexa is too apoplectic to say anything appropriate. She just nods at the appropriate moment and mumbles something about righting grievous insults, clearly itching to storm out. It is almost half an hour before Lexa can politely excuse herself without further offending the ambassadors, claiming the need for food and a promise to come see the gift of horses after she has eaten.

Clarke and Rascal have retreated to Clarke’s room, the puppy having blissfully forgotten the incident. 

“Enough. He must go out to the kennels.” As Clarke starts to protest Lexa sharply raises one hand, cutting off the words. “Until such time as he can learn to behave inside, he cannot be here.”

“Lexa,” Clarke’s voice has a warning tone as she rises. “I get that Rascal caused trouble, but it’s not as if he meant it. He’s a puppy; he’s going to make mistakes. You’re not really going to give me a puppy one day and take him away the next, are you?” Lexa’s face is blank, but she keeps her silence. “Look; how about he stays in my room unless I’m taking him outside? That way nothing like this can happen again."

Lexa studies Clarke’s face for a moment then glances down at Rascal, on his side with his fat belly rising and falling rapidly with his panting. Not exactly an apparent threat to diplomatic relations. 

“Very well. But you must train him better, and I do not have the time to teach you. I will assign someone to assist you tomorrow.”

The corner of Clarke’s mouth twitches up, and she rises to kiss Lexa on the cheek. “Thank you.”


	5. Chapter 5

On fairly insistent advice, Clarke fashions a leash out of rope to take Rascal down to meet the horses. Lexa has already spent half of the afternoon in the stables but decides now is the time for a surprise; probably as the plains nation group has since left. In the grounder world, the horses are everywhere, but Clarke still isn’t fully comfortable with them. She can sit a horse well enough to keep up with the convoys, but she thinks she’ll never have the easy companionship with them that many of the Grounders do.

That Lexa does.

At the end of the stable Lexa seems to be cradling a horse’s nose, letting it sniff at one hand while her other gently rubs its forehead.

Although she’s already arriving later than she’d said she would, Clarke hangs back just to watch Lexa murmur quiet endearments in Trigedasleng against the horse’s head. There’s a quiet honesty to the words, an openness that Clarke has never seen before.

The moment doesn’t last for long before Lexa takes the rope looped around the horses neck and begins to lead it in Clarke’s direction. Not wanting to be caught staring, Clarke steps out as if she’d just arrived.

“Clarke. You came.”

“Of course I did. You said you had surprise for me.”

Lexa smiles warmly and reaches her arm up around the horse’s neck.

“She’s for you.”

Clarke gives Lexa a dubious look and steps forward to offer her hand to the horse as Octavia had first shown her.

“You’re giving me a horse? Why do I need a horse?”

“I have watched you ride. If we came to war or had to flee any second would be able to catch you with ease.”

A slightly raised eyebrow is all Clarke shows of her annoyance with Lexa’s unintentional disparagement and that quickly fades when the mare nibbles her fingers. Lexa offers Clarke the lead rope which she accepts, gingerly. Fortunately the mare is willing to follow Clarke down towards the stalls. When they get there, Lexa shows her how to tie up her horse so it can move enough to eat and stretch without disturbing the others.

“My horse will be in the stall next to yours. I have named her Flicka.”

This time Clarke finds it much harder to contain her reactive snigger. “Fine. Then I’m going to call mine Rexa.”

Lexa’s brows furrow in confusion. “Are you sure? It might easily be confused with my name.”

Now Clarke is in no way trying to hide her smirk. “Exactly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flicka is Trigedasleng for candle.


End file.
